“Going Yard” Bat Blog

As the College World Series grows more popular each year, the NCAA will also need to be more vigilant each year. Sure, the college game shouldn’t be as scandal-prone as the majors have been, but it can still have its problems. One of the big potential concerns is bat rolling, stretching the metal fibers by applying pressure from two rollers. The stretched fibers are more flexible, giving the bat more pop. Of course rolling is illegal in NCAA play, and The Boston Herald reports that of 500 bats tested at the College World Series, 25 were illegal, five because of rolling.

According to the Herald, Easton bats is working on a softball bat that would visually expose the affects of rolling, but there’s no word about the same practice for baseball bats.

The NCAA will be watching, and improving its ability to watch. We’ll keep an eye on it too.

Do you remember which Chicago club President Barack Obama favors? In interview with Stuart Scott last year, the then-candidate gave the answer. The White Sox. He even got to throw out the first pitch at their season opener this year.

But Obama has been a baseball fan since long before he moved to Chicago…the Tribune found a great childhood photo of him in Hawaii taking an early swing. The bat looks a little big for him… maybe he should have taken our advice about youth bats.

Obama is a lefty now, but from the follow-through, it looks like he may have been a righty in his youth. We’ll let that slide.

I don’t like to think about baseball and weddings at the same time. At least not often. Usually they’re separate, and I’m OK with that. But baseball season and wedding season start around the same time, so a few connections are natural.

Heather Travaglini, a wedding planner in Baltimore, had a lot of clever ideas if you want to incorporate a little baseball in your wedding. I know for some the idea of proposing on the scoreboard is a little much (it is for me). But I did like the idea of subbing baseball bats or baseballs for the guestbook. It’s unique without being too distracting, and it makes for a cool keepsake to display. Subtle, but special.

Flickr photo by givn

The last few months felt like the winter of the Wii, but now Opening Day is around the corner and Geekdad has his eye on the spring weather. He’s glad, like many parents are, that kids are putting down the Wii remote and picking up the real, old-fashioned baseball bats. It’s great, of course, that the Wii, and especially the Wii fit, combine video games and physical activity. But still nothing beats the real thing. Kudos to GeekDad for taking the kids out to the ball game…and to all the kids (and kids-at-heart) picking up their baseball bats this spring. With the regular season about part, let’s get ready to play ball!

I’m not sure what made him pick up a wood lathe an auction, but I’m glad that Michael Dean did. It made for a great story. Since he had the lathe, when his son Matt asked him to make him a new baseball bat, he gave it a try. The short version of the story: Matt loved the bat. Matt’s baseball team loved the bats. And now, just two years later, Michael has a full-fledged company. Michael’s bat manufacturing company, Silver Creek Baseball Bats, produces all of their bats by hand, and they’re expected to sell 1500 this year!

Of course one of the biggest factors in choosing a baseball bat is finding a comfortable bat. But even once you’ve found your size and made a decision that fits your budget, you still want to feel good when you get to the plate. More importantly, you want to feel good when you make contact. Batting gloves are the best way to cut back on sting. But how much have you thought about why making good contact stings so much? A researcher for Cornell’s “Ask a Scientist” series makes it easy to understand why bats sting your hands.

We did a bit of research on some of the techno-jargon that the bat companies use, and it is pretty amusing.

Check it out here….

A small but growing number of high school leagues have begun to switch to wood bats, for both financial and safety reasons. What do you think?

A giant is turning 125 this year. All season long, Louisville Slugger celebrates its 125 anniversary. Ingrained in baseball’s history, Louisville Slugger has always been family-owned, and the company stands as a great part of baseball’s legacy. From their first baseball bat (made for Pete Browning in 1884) to becoming the first company to sign a player to a promotional endorsement contract (Honus Wagner in 1905) to today, making bats for more than 8,500 professional baseball players, Louisville Slugger still remains connected to the individual fan. Their factory are second-to-none, and a tour of their facilities is a walk through baseball history.

You don’t need to be a Hall of Famer to appreciate the quality of a Louisville Slugger bat. Whether you’re looking for aluminum bats or wood bats, they’ll have the product to the fit your budget. But always one for a personal touch, you can also get customized bats, which make great gifts.

They’ll be celebrating all season long, but you can learn more about the 125th anniversary celebration at Louisville Slugger’s official site.

In the shadow of corporate sponsorship and in this day of endorsements and big contracts, it’s easy to say “the game has changed,” and wonder how it used to be. But even in those golden days, big companies and big contracts loomed over proud family operations. In Sean Kirst’s column, we get a look at a hometown bat manufacturer who was well known for making top-quality bats, but not for seeing them recognized on the field. Even though Joseph Kren’s bats were respected as strong, resilient sticks by top players of the twenties and thirties, most guys were under contract with Lousiville Slugger.

Kren’s story is more than a feel-good story of a local manufacturer. It’s a history of pride in a product and the craft of baseball bats—bats that brought success to slammers like Charlie Gehringer and Frankie Frisch. Kren’s bats even made it to the record books and Hall of Fame, with George “Highpockets” Kelly’s game bat from the early twenties when he hit three home runs in one day.

The big names stay more familiar, but the family names still get their days in the sun.